Text by by Dawoud Kringle

Wednesday, July 26th, 2023, iconic Irish singer Sinead O’Conner died.

DooBeeDoo and MFM salutes the memory of Shuhada Sadaqat / Sinead O’Connor;  an artist with immense talent, and a woman of powerful convictions and sufficient courage to stand by both. Her example as an artist and activist stands as an object lesson for us all.

O’Connor was born in Dublin Ireland on December 8th 1966. In 1979, O’Connor left her mother and went to live with her father in Alexandria, VA. At the age of 15, her shoplifting and truancy led to her being placed for 18 months in a Magdalene Asylum (a kind of Catholic reform school for young women who became pregnant outside of marriage, or young girls and teenagers who did not have familial support). While she disliked the conformity imposed upon her, and struggled with a great deal of family problems, she used her time to develop her songwriting.

She recorded a song with a band called In Tua Nua called “Take My Hand.” but they felt that because she was only 15 at the time, she was too young to join the band. In mid-1984, she met Colm Farrelly, recruited a few other members and formed a band called Ton Ton Macoute. She was eventually signed by Ensign Records, and was managed by Fachtna Ó Ceallaigh (former head of U2’s Mother Records). Soon after she was signed, she contributed the vocals for the song “Heroine”, which she co-wrote with U2’s guitarist Edge.

Her first album “The Lion and the Cobra” was released on Chrysalis Records in 1987. It went gold and earned a Best Female Rock Vocal Performance Grammy nomination. In 1988, she made her first major TV appearance on the David Letterman Show. In 1989 O’Connor  made her first foray into cinema, starring in and writing the music for the Northern Irish film Hush-A-Bye-Baby.

With her 1980 album “I Do Not Want What I haven’t Got,” her popularity began to rise. NME rated it second best album of the year. It contained her number one hit “Nothing Compares 2 U” ( a song written by Prince).

In November 2014 she said, “I did meet him (Prince) a couple of times. We didn’t get on at all. In fact we had a punch-up. He summoned me to his house after ‘Nothing Compares’. I made it without him. I’d never met him. He summoned me to his house – and it’s foolish to do this to an Irish woman – he said he didn’t like me saying bad words in interviews. So I told him to f*** off.” In her 2021 memoir Rememberings, O’Connor described her meeting with Prince in detail, which ranged from having his butler serve soup repeatedly despite no desire for soup, to hitting her with a hard object placed in a pillowcase after wanting a pillow fight, and stalking her with his car after she left the mansion.

In July 1990, she was among several artists who joined former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters for a performance of The Wall in Berlin Germany.  In 1992, she contributed backing vocals on the track “Come Talk To Me”, and shared vocals on the single”Blood of Eden” on Peter Gabriel’s album “Us.”

In October 1992, O’Conner created serious controversy when she appeared on the TV show Saturday Night Live. After some negotiations, she was given permission to perform a cover of Bob Marley’s song “”War.” At the conclusion, she unexpectedly tore up a photograph ofPope John Paul II, in an act of protest against the Catholic Church’s attempts to cover up child abuse allegations. The Church was and still is well known to have inflicted sexual and physical abuse on children. Since John Paul II was the head of the church, he represented all that had gone wrong for Catholic children in Ireland. Nonetheless, despite the fearless statement, based on  powerful moral convictions, her career and public image suffered. She was vilified and ostracized.

O’Connor’s “You Made Me a Thief of Your Heart” appeared on the 1993 soundtrack to the film “In the Name of the Father.”

In 1994, she released “Universal Mother,” with two music videos; “Fire on Babylon” and “Famine.” Both songs were nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video. The same year, she appeared with Roger Daltrey at Carnegie Hall for a celebration of Pete Townsend’s 50th birthday. The following year she toured with Lollapalooza, but left the tour when she became pregnant with her second child. In 1996, O’Connor guested on Richard Wright’s (of Pink Floyd) solo album “Broken China.” The following year, she made her final feature film appearance in “The Butcher Boy,” where she played the Virgin Mary. In 1997, she released an EP titled “Gospel Oak.”  In 1998, she worked for the second time with the Red Hot Organization to co-produce and perform on “Red Hot + Rhapsody.”

In 1999, she became an ordained priest by an independent Irish bishop, Michael Cox. and took the name Mother Bernadette Marie. She later told RTÉ   “A person shouldn’t become a priest unless they take it dreadfully seriously, What I call my holy trinity is I am a mother, I am a singer, and I am a priest, these things are equally sacred to me. I became a priest because I believed in the church and I don’t want the church to die, and I believe in the power of prayer.”

O’Conner began the 21st century with the release of the album “Faith & Courage.” The single “No Man’s Woman” featured Wyclef Jean (of the Fuguees) and Dave Stewart (of the Eurythmics). In 2002, she released “Sean-Nós Nua” which featured reinterpretations of traditional Irish songs, some sung in Gaelic. In 2003, she contributed a cover of Dolly Parton’s “Dagger Through the Heart” to the Dolly Parton tribute album “Just Because I’m a Woman.” The same year, she appeared on Massive Attack’s album “100th Window,” and released a double album titled “She Who Dwells in the Secret Place of the Most High Shall Abide Under the Shadow of the Almighty.” Almost immediately after the album’s release, O’Connor announced that she was retiring from music. Despite a brief period of inactivity and a bout with fibromyalgia, her retirement was brief. In 2005, she released a reggae album titled “Throw Down Your Arms.”

On November 8th 2006, O’Connor performed seven songs from her then upcoming album “Theology” at The Sugar Club in Dublin. She offered fans the opportunity to win thirty pairs of tickets to the event The performance was released in 2008 in the form of a CD/DVD package sold exclusively on her website.In 2007, O’Connor released two songs from her album Theology to download for free from her official website: “If You Had a Vineyard” and “Jeremiah (Something Beautiful)”.

In January 2010, O’Connor performed a duet with Mary J. Blige on her song “This Is To Mother You.” The single was produced by Ali Shaheed Muhammad (A Tribe Called Quest).  The proceeds of the song’s sales were donated to Girls Educational and Mentoring Services.

In 2011, O’Connor recorded a new album, titled “How About I Be Me and You Be You?” with the first single being “The Wolf is Getting Married”. The tour she planned in support of the album was cancelled due to health problems. These cancellations lasted through 2012.  O’Connor resumed touring in 2013 with The Crazy Baldhead Tour. She released “I’m Not Bossy, I’m the Boss” in 2014. The same year, she changed management, working with Simon Napier Bell and Bjorn de Water. Shortly afterward, she joined Band Aid 30, a charity supergroup to record a new version of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” to raise money to combat the West African Ebola epidemic.

Her conversion to Islam in October 2018 created some controversy.She Tweeted “This is to announce that I am proud to have become a Muslim. This is the natural conclusion of any intelligent theologian‘s journey. All scripture study leads to Islam. Which makes all other scriptures redundant,” She took on the Muslim name Shuhada Sadaqat, but continued to use the name Sinead O’Connor professionally. She also uploaded a video of her calling the Azhan, the Islamic call to prayer. She didn’t want to publicize her choice. “I felt that I didn’t want to as it was a private decision, and…I didn’t want to justify it to people. I felt like I don’t have to explain why I became a Muslim…I feel passionately about Islam and passionate about defending it against stigma.”

In September 2019, O’Connor performed “Nothing Compares 2 U” with the Irish Chamber Orchestra live on Raidió Teilifís Éireann. It was her first live performance in five years.

In October 2020, O’Connor released a cover of Mahalia Jackson’s “Trouble of the World. ” Proceeds from the single went to benefit Black Lives Matter charities.

In 2021, “Rememberings,” O’Connor’s memoir was released to positive critical reception. It was listed among the best books of the year on BBC Culture. In June of the same year, O’Connor announced her retirement from the music industry. Her final studio album, “No Veteran Dies Alone,” was scheduled to be released in 2022, O’Connor stated that she would not be touring or promoting it. The following June she retracted her previous statement, describing the original announcement as “a knee-jerk reaction” to an insensitive interview, and announcing that her 2022 tour would go ahead as scheduled.The tour was, however, cancelled in January 2022 due to her son Shane’s suicide at the age of 17. A week later, she was hospitalised on her own volition following a series of tweets in which she indicated she was going to take her own life

In July 2021, An Post, the Irish postal service,released a postage stamp bearing the image of O’Connor.

In February 2023, she shared a new version of “The Skye Boat Song,” a 19th century Scottish adaptation of a 1782 Gaelic song. The following month, she was awarded the inaugural Choice Music Prize Classic Irish Album award by RTE for her 1990 album “I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got.”

O’Connor had four children and was married and divorced four times. She had her first son, Jake, in 1987 with her first husband, music producerJohn Reynolds. In August 2001, O’Connor married British journalist Nick Sommerlad. The marriage ended 11 months later.

O’Connor was married a third time on 22 July 2010, to longtime friend and collaborator Steve Cooney. They seperated in March 2011. Her fourth marriage was to Irish therapist Barry Herridge. They wed on 9 December 2011. Their marriage ended seven days later, The following week, on 3 January 2012, O’Connor issued several comments on the internet to the effect that the couple had re-united. On 18 July 2015, her first grandson was born to her son Jake Reynolds and his girlfriend Lia.

On 26 July 16th, 2023, O’Connor was found unresponsive at her flat in London. She was 56 years old. The cause of her death is, as of this writing, unknown. Police are not treating her death as suspicious.

At the time of her death, she was completing a new album, reviewing tour dates for 2024 and considering opportunities in relation to a movie based on her memoirs.

Since her death was announced, Muslim fans have said her conversion to Islam was inspiring, but complained that many media reports had failed (or refused) to mention her religious beliefs in obituaries.

In a 2021 interview with People Magazine to promote her memoir “Rememberings,” O’Connor said she had explained to her children the importance of protecting her music and finances. She said she told them to call her accountant before they telephoned 911 should she ever be found dead. Her reason for this was that artists are more valuable after they’re dead, and she wanted to make sure her children had control over her legacy.

Her legacy is beautifully illustrated when Irish President Michael D. Higgins paid tribute to O’Connor, saying “(My) first reaction on hearing the news of Sinéad’s loss was to remember her extraordinarily beautiful, unique voice. To those of us who had the privilege of knowing her, one couldn’t but always be struck by the depth of her fearless commitment to the important issues which she brought to public attention, no matter how uncomfortable those truths may have been.”